About Me

Wednesday, 26 March 2014

How Clever Were We In The Past?

This blog at times lurches
into or draws from history. This comes
in many forms and the joy of the web is the amount of digital information
becoming available.

This allows us to go to the real
history and comment of periods of the past and to judge for ourselves what may
be what and measure the realities of then matched against what is thought or
what we are told by intervening writers.

Today a choice example
dropped into the mail inbox from family with a link to an article in a current
publication. The link is about the 1869
period proposed subway below The Thames but within it is another link marked
"here" to an 1869 original article in The
Engineer.

Going back to the original
1869 image will involve time but if you have it is quite rewarding in a number
of ways. What is fascinating is the
range of subject matter in what you would think to be a technical journal of a
defined range of academic field.

There is a basic
assumption that engineers will have necessary and vital interests in a good
many other matters of study at the time across a wide range of academic fields. The Royal Albert Hall, above, was being built
in 1869 and stands among a number of varied academic establishments from that
time.

What is striking about the
language is the ability of all the writers to convey information and discussion,
matched with clarity, freedom from jargon or confusion and the confidence in
the prose.

It is said that we all
stand on the shoulders of giants. In the
mid Victorian age, were there more giants around than in the present day?